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Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing Is Still Right 20 Years Later
20 years later, Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" still gets heads knodding, Rosie Perez still looks hot doing the running man and Spike Lee's joint "Do The Right Thing" still has a tremendous degree of relevance since America's racial conversation is still unfinished.
Spike was in Atlanta for a Hollywood style screening of the digital print of DTRT and shared his thoughts on the making of the incendiary film and thoughts on race in America post-Obama. The film is now considered a classic and studied in film schools around the world. Spike asked how many people were studying, or even watching, "Driving Miss Daisy" the winner of the 1989 Academy Award for Best Picture. Good point, Spike.
When looking at the film, it's amazing to see the amount of young and/or first-time actors making their big screen debuts, including Martin Lawrence, Robin Harris and Rosie Perez.
The one thing the film never answers, and Spike says this was deliberate, is to tell us what, exactly, is the "right thing"! He says it's totally up to the viewer – his intent was to just frame the issues and start the conversation. He did his part, the rest of us just never did ours.
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Disney's Black Princess Has No Black Prince
After years of flack from the Black community about the lack of a Black princess for little Black girls to identify with, Disney finally capitulated with the release later this year of "The Princess And The Frog". Disney danced around the issue artfully for years and used Black voices for "The Lion King" and in "Pocahontas", but would never make a Black human character. Now, we have Princess Tiana, but we never thought to fight for a Black prince too!
It seems, however, that Princess Tiana is going the something new route and is right in step with so many sistas these days who have chosen to have someone other than a Nubian prince on their arm.
C'mon, ladies and Disney...give a bruh a break!
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Cheryl Dunye, The Lesbian Spike Lee, Releases Early Works On DVD
Cheryl Dunye, dubbed by Newsday as the lesbian Spike Lee, has release a DVD of her film projects from the early to mid-90s on DVD called, simply enough, "The Early Works of Cheryl Dunye". The UCLA professor is chronicles, almost autobiographically, in film the journey of an African-American lesbian.
The Liberian-born Dunye, is most noted for her 1996 film "The Watermelon Woman" and most recently 2004's "My Baby Daddy" starring Eddie Griffin, Anthony Anderson and Michael Imperioli (from HBO's "The Soprano's").
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Jill Scott Series Finally Comes To HBO
It's been a minute since it was announced, the pilot has even run on the BBC, but Jill Scott can finally be seen acting this month in her HBO series "The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency". The series premieres on Sunday, March 29th at 8pm. Once again, Ms. Scott (or should I say Mrs. Little John Roberts?) shows she has acting chops.
BTW, I hear Jill and John are expecting a joyous, little production of their own in April!! For those who don't know, Little John (not the crunked up rapper/producer) is an incredibly skilled drummer who has played with George Duke, Janet Jackson and was a member of the legendary Atlanta band, The Chronicle.
What a wonderful spring it's shaping up to be for Jill!!
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Chris Rock & "Good Hair" Win Big At Sundance Film Festival
It's impossible not to feel a little emotional listening to Chris Rock
describe how the idea for this documentary came about. Rock says that
despite how much he tells his daughter how beautiful she is every day,
she still cried to him once, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?"
Troubled by this, Rock "committed himself to search the ends of the
earth and the depths of Black culture to find out who had put that
question into his little girl's head!" Rock himself claims this might be
the best movie he's ever made. Intriguing? Chris Rock offers up a
thought-provoking, well-researched and, by most accounts, pretty funny
documentary in "Good Hair," which snagged a prestigious grand jury prize at the
2009 Sundance Film Festival.
This hair thing has had us crazy for a minute! Good look, Chris with "Good Hair"!
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